From Saugerties to Japan, WWII flags heal old wounds (video)

This letter, from a Japanese man whose brother died in World War II, thanks the American Legion post in Saugerties for returning a flag that was carried by the brother during the war. (Freeman photo by Tania Barricklo)

Bill Payne, left, of American Legion Post 72 in Saugerties, and Kiyoshi Yamauchi, a goodwill ambassador from Japan, hold up one of the flags on Thursday at the Legion post. (Freeman photo by Tania Barricklo)

SAUGERTIES, N.Y. -- They carried the prayers of loved ones close to their hearts during the battles of World War II.

Silk prayer flags, known in Japan as hinomaru yosegaki, were inscribed with messages of courage and good fortune and were considered farewell souvenirs to the Japanese soldiers in the South Pacific between 1942 and 1944.

Like most of the men in the Imperial Japanese Army, Soji Kaneko kept the flag in his pocket for good luck.

After he was killed in battle, it was removed and taken as a sort of spoil-of-war trophy.

Advertisement

U.S. Army Pfc. Rich Voerg carried it back to his home in Saugerties when he returned from the war.

After Voerg died, his family donated the flag to the Saugerties American Legion Post 72 on John Street in Saugerties.

Another flag belonging to a Japanese soldier, named Haruyoshi Kobayakawa, also had been given to the post, this one in memory of Army Pfc. Richard Loerzel of Saugerties.

Both flags have been preserved and displayed in the post's second-floor military museum for years.

Bill Payne and Alan Greczynski, co-curators of the museum, were able to enlist the help of SUNY New Paltz Professor Al Marks and members of the Japanese Association to translate the inscriptions on the flags.

American Legion members voted unanimously in recent years to return them to the soldiers' families in Japan.

The surviving family members of the American soldiers who brought them home agreed.

Progress was made Thursday toward that end as Kiyoshi Yamauchi, a goodwill ambassador from Japan, arrived in Saugerties to collect the flags.

He will send them to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare of Japan, which will return the flags to the Japanese soldiers' families.

Yamauchi, an English professor at Nimi University near Yokohama, said he was honored to receive the flags on behalf of the Japanese families.

Those attending the flag exchange at the Saugerties post Thursday night learned Keneko worked in a car factory and died in Luzon in the Philippines.

His younger brother, now 87, also served in the Japanese army, in China, said Payne, a former commander of the Saugerties American Legion.

Not much is known about the owner of the other flag, except that it was picked up in New Guinea after the war, Payne said.

Everyone involved in the flag exchange Thursday night said it was part of a healing process that still is occurring, even 67 years after Japan surrendered to the American-led Allies in 1945.

Yamauchi said he was able to locate Kaneko's younger brother through his work with the ministry and that the man was grateful to the American Legion for returning it.

"He was very happy to have his elder brother's flag back after 67 years," Yamauchi said. "I believe it heals the relatives."